Modern Mexico and Guatemala

This collection is organized into Series 1: Photos and Series 2: Documents. The photos and documents primarily relate to Albino Mendoza’s work at the Teatro Casino Luís Mier y Terán. The documents include family and business correspondence, work contracts and budgets, and ephemera. The black and white photos were taken in the early 1900s. They include photos of Albino Mendoza along with photos of his wife and associates, a large building in construction (most likely Teatro Casino Luís Mier y Terán), interior and exterior photos of the Teatro Casino Luís Mier y Terán and photos of other buildings and rooms.

The bulk of the Tice collection covers Tice’s own life between 1948 and 1987. Her experiences have been diverse and wide-ranging, geographically. The collection contains material on Alaska and Eski¬mos gathered when Tice was a teacher at Point Barrow (1951-53) and also research materials on the Tarahumara Indians gathered during a visit to Mexico in the late 1960’s. Tice also gathered research materials on the Lancandon Indians of Central America for her interview with Dr. Cordon (Secret of the Forest) in 1964.

Arnulfo (Medina) González was born in Villa de Juárez, Coahuila, Mexico, April 23, 1886 to Pedro González Ortega and Jerónima Medina. He died April 10, 1962. Señor González completed his primary studies in Villa de Juárez, secondary and preparatory studies at Ateneo Fuente, Saltillo, and legal studies at the National School of Law, Mexico. The archive contains material relevant to the history of Northern Mexico, particularly the state of Coahuila, during the late years of the Mexican Revolution and the early 1920’s.

This collection contains material related to the Mexican National School of Medicine during the years 1825-1893. The school is part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and is the oldest European medical school in North or South America.

This collection reflects the career of Frederick A. Peterson, a Mesoamerican archaeologist who focused his research on Mexico. Correspondence; anthropological and archaeological research; manuscripts from his book, Ancient Mexico; and eighteenth and nineteenth-century Spanish documents make up the bulk of the collection

This small collection contains correspondence and documents from G.D. Macy, a consulting geologist in Santa Fe. The letters addressed to and from Macy focus on mining questions in Guatemala. One of Macy’s letters is addressed from Leadville, CO. The collection contains a number of reports on Gua¬temalan petroleum resources and geological characteristics. Also included are a number of translated legal documents dealing with mining in Guatemala. A blueprint for a mining claim in Honduras and maps of Central America and Mexico round out the collection. All materials are in English

The collection documents human rights violations in Guatemala between 1980 and 1996. Materials include human rights reports from international non-governmental organizations, reports from wom¬en’s and child advocacy groups, publications from popular and revolutionary groups, and information about U.S. policy towards Guatemala.

Margaret Randall’s life and consequently, her writings, focus on themes of politics, social revolu-tion, art, feminism, and lesbianism. Most of Randall’s writings focus on Latin America and the United States. The years she spent in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua figure prominently in her works. Randall uses mediums of photography, oral history, poetry, essay, translation, and narrative to bring her is¬sues to light. The collection contains materials documenting Margaret Randall’s literary, political, and social career. Correspondence, publications, manuscripts, video tapes, and related materials comprise the bulk of the collection.

This collection consists of two series, containing approximately 135 half-sheet broadsides from Mexico. In Series I, each broadside contains an illustration from either a zinc etching, a type-metal engraving, a woodcut, or a photograph. Dates for this series range between 1895 and 1925. Some of the broadsides are entirely in verse, some report events such as comets, crime, natural disasters. The most represented printer is Antonio Vanegas Arroyo. Many of the illustrations were cut by José Guadalupe Posada. The broadsides in Series II date between 1857 and 1872. Each is a poem on a religious theme and all but two include an engraving and decorated borders. One of the broadsides is printed in silver gilt on blue tissue, with the original manuscript attached. Most were published in Tenango del Valle, with four being published in Toluca, one in Tepexoxuca and one without place of publication. Most were printed by M. Murguía or the Sociedad A. Regeneradora.

The Mexican Bookplate Collection consists of 170 Mexican bookplates, plus four French examples. The collection represents the styles of heraldry and of ornamentation in vogue at various times in the 20th century. Many of the illustrations are rare examples including those of more modern design. No attempt has been made to chronologize the collection or to attribute dates, artists, or the owners who commissioned the plates. Variations of iconography for a single moniker or logo are common.

This collection contains a total of 6 broadsides, 4 by Posada and 2 by Manilla, all of which were printed by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo in Mexico City. Some of the prints by José Guadalupe Posada from this collection are available, along with other Posada prints, in the José Guadalupe Posada Collection of Mexican Popular Prints, part of the Center for Southwest Research's digital collections.

This collection contains 46 flyers and posters announcing events or situations pertinent to the Mexican Communist Party or affiliated organizations. This collection contains a few loose newspaper pages containing articles relevant to the Communist Party of Mexico, as well as numerous posters and flyers. The posters in this collection reflect historical as well as promoting the main cause of the Mexican Communist Party: worker solidarity. Most of the posters and flyers in the collection announce rallies or protests for a particular cause, or, sometimes, commemorations (such as the death of Karl Marx).

This collection contains a variety of materials dealing with social and political life in Mexico from the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth century, although the majority of materials are from the early years of the Mexican republic. Mexico gained independence from Spain in the early part of the nineteenth-century and formulated a constitution in 1824. The documents and publications in the collection illuminate the complex political and socio-religious events during this period.

The Mexican sheet music collection is compiled of a variety of musical scores of Mexican and Latin American music that was published in Mexico, other parts of Latin America, the United States and Europe. Musical genres represented in the collection include canción, canción mexicana, canción regional, fox-trot, march (marcha), bolero, waltz (vals), danza, tango, huapango, schottisch, corrido, son, polka, romanza and a few others. Most of the scores contain beautiful cover illustrations.

This collection consists of photographs, created in Mexico, depicting a wide variety of subjects. Notable items are portraits and informal pictures of Mexican Revolutionary War figures, folk theatre, dance, and music events, cartes-de-visite from the 19th century, and Pre-Columbian sites and artifacts. Some famous photographers represented in the collection are Hugo Brehme, A. Briquet, Cruces y Campa, Fotografia Daguerre Studio, M. de Haaff, Guillermo Kahlo, and C. B. Waite.

This small collection contains documentation about creating a vocational school of agriculture in the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico. The collection includes correspondence and minutes from the Secretaria de Agricultura y Fomento, Mexico City dealing with the purchase of land for building the school. The materials compare and contrast proposed sites according to price, soil and air quality, existing build¬ings and various other economic and agricultural criteria. Photographs are included. The oversize materials include three blueprints from the proposed sites of purchase. Materials are in Spanish.

The majority of the materials in this collection were written or acquired in Mexico by Paul Van de Velde during his term of diplomatic service for the Belgian government from around 1910 to 1940. The materials were primarily collected in Oaxaca during his tenure there. Included are correspon¬dence, newspaper clippings, legal and government documents, pamphlets, and flyers. Materials are in English and Spanish. The collection is divided according to the format of the material (bound, unbound, handwritten manuscripts, etc.)

This collection consists of exhibition quality prints by contemporary photographers of various subjects, including: immigration, city and town life, mothers and children, politicans, cityscapes, landscapes, Indians of Mexico, traditional medicine, and domestic architecture. Photographers represented in this collection include Eniac Martinez, Elsa Medina, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Antonio Turok, and Mariana Yampolsky. Photographs are added as received.

Collection Strengths

UNM's Manuscript holdings are particularly strong in Colonial Spanish American Sources, 20th Century Mexican and Guatemalan sources and Visual and Musical resources. Also notable are travel related manuscripts and personal or institutional collections addressing other parts of Latin America. The lists here are not exhaustive, so researchers should consult the Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA) RMOA – an inventory of archival collections in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming, which is technologically and administratively managed by UNM University Libraries. Please contact the Curator of Latin American Collections, Suzanne Schadl with an questions or recommendations.